, 1887-08-11
a PATHETIC STORY.
A pricf Account, Simply Told, of Domestic
Infelicity.

A short time ago fieeting sensa-
tidn was created by a woman at
tempting to shoot a man through a
window at the depot. Particulars
leading up to the almost successful
assassination were meagre, and while
the expressions OF opinion were few,
yet there seemed to be an under cur
rent of sympathy favorlng the man
who so narrowly escaped death.
The mans name was OBrien, and
the woman, whose impractical eye
alone prevented a successful termin-
alton of well laid plan, was his di-
vorced wife. The woman sends in
for publication the letter given be-
low, as her side of story that Is pa
thetic in its plainness, telling of a
life of misery and unhappiness, such
as would drive almost any one dis
tracted, and spur him or her on to a
deed of violence. If this man
OBrien Is the vicious, unmanly,
bestial cur that this exposure paints
him, he deserves more ignominious
death than that by the bullet. A
man 80 lost to common decency, a
man who will use his bruto instincts
to override and reduce woman to a
lower scale in human misery than
that OF q manacled slave, and that
oman, her whom he had sworn to
love aud cherish, is too low to de-
serve the sympathy Of a single mem
Der OF the human race. The fact of
n ,.i.yi hi, IDor
who lived under his roof for al
most three decades, and bore
him many children, for the
he might exercise his british in
stincts Is damning evidence of
his wOrthlessness. The statement
given that younger wife of Sec
ond marriage was driven to self-de-
struction to escape the daily suffer-
ings she endured through his hands,
Is still further proof to substantiate
Mrs. OBrien's story, and throws at
least a shadow of excuse over the at
tempted perpetration of crime that
she was driven to In moment of
despair. There Is no means of
vouching for the life led by Mrs. o.
Brien. She may be saint or sin
ner for all the writer knows to the
contrary, but If she were the latter,
she has been sufficiently harassed to
drive any woman out of the pale of
responsibility. From what can be
learned, she is q hard working wo-
man, only desirous to be permitted
a chance to earn u livelihood. The
letter referred to reads as follows:
1.sh WHOM 1T MAY CONCERN.
/ thought / would like to say a
few words to the public in regard to
the "well dressed man" with whom
my name has recently been coupled
in connection with an unfortunate
affair. He is a man whom married
in 1854, and during the twenty-eight
years we lived together he abused
me every way until 1 got a divorce
minor children which the court
gave me. The eldest died in one
month afterwards. At the time o..
RsIen Tns living shS with had YdHwss fSrea
any of my children. But she
farm hand. had left Fremont,
Neb., and went to Mitchell, Dakota,
and from there to Letcher, Dakota.
Who should be there but OBrien.
saw him. He stopped at the hotel
that L had rented. In the afternoon
a lawyer came to me and said
wished to have u talk with
me. said did not wish to con-
verse with him. He told me to
think over 1t. 1 said there was no
use as he drove me to get divorce
and l never would go back. The
next morning he came again with
the story that OBrien was sorry; he
knew he had done wrong; he was
getting old and would like to get his
family together again. But as he
had abused:and driven them away, /
refused, as they could all take care
Of themselves. Then he wanted to
take the two minor children for the
saying that he would make
them his heirs, which / thought
would be an advantage to the boys.
He said could have the children
on the lst of April, and that he
would pay my fare aud expenses to
come and see them at any time. 1t
went along to the 2Sth of March
without hearing from them when
went to them to see what was the
He was gone with the one
he took from me here to Chicago.
When he came back he was married
to young girl twenty-four years of
age and refused to let me have the
child. Then / got out a writ of ha-
peas corpus, which ended in the
court and he did everything mean
to try to beat me. l got tired and
left for the west. His wife lived
some ten months with him. They
lived SO unhappily together that she
took poison and died.
have five living children out of
twelve and the one l had here is the
only one he speaks to. He has said
that he did not give II curse tor the
child, he just took il to plague me.
did not contest for alimOny, but
took some 81 300 and left; was glad
to get away as no one can imagine
how that "well dressed man" can
act, and of course 1 cannot tell all.
AS far as being incorporate is con-